Covert Operation

The best-known organizations specializing in covert operations today are the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department Of Defense ( The Pentagon ) of the United States , but covert operations have been employed by many national and sub-national governments and other organizations for centuries, with or without a formal Intelligence Agency . They are an established and often controversial component of Foreign Policy throughout the world. The equivalent Soviet terminology would be " Active Measures ".

Law Enforcement agencies also use covert operations to infiltrate suspected Criminal Organization s.

FORMS OF COVERT OPERATIONS

Covert action takes many different forms reflecting the diverse circumstances in which it is used. There are Paramilitary operations, in which a state trains, supports, or advises a military force in another country. There is Political Subversion , in which a state supports or advises a political group in another country or directs Propaganda at its population. In Disinformation operations, a government provides Forged documents to another government to turn that government against an enemy. Some of the most controversional covert actions are those directed against individuals, such as Kidnapping s, Assassinations , and Coups D'état .

A common tactic in covert operations is to establish a Front Business Or Organization through which agents can operate unrecognized. Air America , the CIA-owned airline that supplied Hmong fighters in Laos during the Second Indochina War , is an example of such a front organization.

EXAMPLES OF COVERT OPERATIONS

A campaign against North Vietnam conducted by the Pentagon 's Special Operations Group under the cover name "Studies and Observation Group" from 1964 to 1972 , said to be the largest and most complex covert operation since World War II and involving the dispatch of spies, psychological warfare, manipulation of North Vietnamese POW s and Kidnapping , dirty tricks, commando raids, and operations on the Ho Chi Minh Trail . {Link without Title}

The assassination (by Mossad ) of the Palestinian s who organized the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich , Germany .

Operation COINTELPRO , the FBI 's program to infiltrate and disrupt domestic left-leaning political groups during the Cold War .

REPRESENTATIONS OF COVERT OPERATIONS IN POPULAR CULTURE

Covert operations have often been the subject of popular novels, films, TV series, etc.

Literature

See Spy Fiction .

Film

See Spy Film .

Television

I Spy

, 1966-1963, 1988-1990

'' 24 ''

Alias , 2001-2006

REFERENCES

1. Shultz, Richard H., Jr. ''The Secret War against Hanoi: Kennedy's and Johnson's Use of Spies, Saboteurs, and Covert Warriors in North Vietnam''. HarperCollins, 1999. ISBN 0060194545.

SEE ALSO

Black Op

False Flag

SO10

Information About

Covert Operation